"Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to 'aging out' out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse.... As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds...

Kim Vogel Sawyer, ACF Book of the Year winner for Waiting for Summer's Return, delivers historically rich tales with unforgettable characters. After an 1886 fire kills their parents, three children are split up. Keeping her parents' love letters, Maelle entrusts the family's picture to Mattie and its Bible to Molly. And, in a tearful parting, eight-year-old Maelle's vows to one day find her younger siblings.

A powerful blend of history, biography, and adventure, ORPHAN TRAINS fills a grievous gap in the American story. Tracing the evolution of the Children's Aid Society, this dramatic narrative tells the fascinating tale of one of the most famous — and sometimes infamous — child welfare programs: the orphan trains, which spirited away some 250,000 abandoned children into the homes of rural families in the Midwest.
In mid-nineteenth-century

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"Sophie Newmann has been taking care of two children, trying to keep th em away from the orphanages of 1850s New York City. After witnessing a crime, Sophie flees the state, taking her tow young charges and joining an orphan train heading west. But now she faces the agonizing possibility that the orphans will be placed in new homes. Sophie finds unexpected help in the form of Reinhold Weiss, who now owns a farm. Reinhold has mounting debs, a harvest...

Discusses the placement of over 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children in homes throughout the Midwest from 1854 to 1929 by recounting the story of one boy and his brothers.

In the late 1800s, Marianne travels westward on the Orphan Train in hopes of being placed with a caring family.

"With his mother dead, his father gone, and his older brothers and sisters unable to help, eight-year-old Ethan Cooper knows it's his responsibility to keep him and his younger siblings together--even if that means going to an orphanage. Ethan, Alice, Simon, and Will settle into the Briarlane Christian Children's Home, where there's plenty to eat, plenty of work, and plenty of talk about a Father who never leaves. Even so, Ethan fears losing the only...

"Nine-year-old Ethan Cooper has managed to keep his family together for a year in a Pennsylvania orphanage. Now he and his siblings are boarding a train headed west. He can't help but worry: Mr. and Mrs. Rush in Nebraska have agreed to adopt all four Cooper children, but what if they change their minds? In the meantime, Ethan and his siblings encounter their first dust storm, explore train cars, and watch friend after friend leave with new parents....

"The events surrounding the Orphan Trains did not look the same to everyone involved. Step back in time and into the shoes of an orphan child heading to the Midwest, a Midwestern family awaiting a child, and a New York City child welfare worker as readers act out the scenes that took place in the midst of this historic event. Written with simplified, considerate text to help struggling readers, books in this series are made to build confidence as...